Book Information: Ptolemies, the

The Ptolemies is a story so layered, so dark and glittering and disastrous, that perhaps only Thoth the Ibis–the irreverent, riotously pompous narrator who is also the god of Wisdom and Patron of Scribes–could do it justice.

It begins with Ptolemy Soter, the Macedonian general who, after the death of Alexander the Great, takes all Egypt for himself–and hijacks Alexander’s body to serve as his lucky mascot. Of humble origin, Ptolemy now becomes Satrap of Egypt, and he is soon to be Pharaoh, a god in his own lifetime. We follow this rise to divinity as it takes him from Memphis to Alexandria, and through a string of wives and concubines, bad-seed sons and tragic daughters, conniving High Priests and oracle-giving sacred bulls. And around him: a constantly shifting cast of Greeks and Egyptians–high and low, powerful and weak, honorable and evil–whose lives unfurl against a dense and vividly drawn backdrop of increasingly bizarre dynastic drama and turmoil.